Apiolae, Pometia e Cora

The Latin cities of southern Lazio become fully engaged with the story of the Tarquins through a series of crucial events. The ancient sources are impressively coherent (no doubt as a result of a concerted effort to construct a consistent strategy by the dynasty in the region), whilst certain important urban monuments were able centuries later to evoke the memory of the early relationships between Rome and the cities on the southern frontier of Latium vetus. This essay offers a series of historical and topographical considerations on Apiolae (on a friction point between the Latins and Volscians south of the Alban Hills and potentially identifiable with Colle della Coedra, Giulianello di Cori); Pometia (which we see as different from Catricum and to be identified with di Caprifico di Torrecchia, Cisterna di Latina); and Cora (the one Latin metropolis in this area not connected to Rome and which which shows an uninterrupted continuity of settlement from the middle Bronze Age to the development of the historical city in the first half of the 5th century BC, with some ceramic and architectural material datable to the last phase of the Roman kingship.*